Do not bum scraps or use sawdust in the garden. Many Europeans garden using a system commonly referred to as the French Intensive Gardening method, which originated in 1890 on a small plot of land on the outskirts of Paris, France. It is truly a wonder to behold. Inter-plant lettuce with pole beans; the lettuce will be slower to bolt when growing in the partial shade provided by the taller beans. Staggered plantings also work well with lettuce, radishes and other fast-yielding crops. See more ideas about vegetable garden, organic gardening, gardening tips. Better yet, use mulches (mulch, MULCH!!) The initial labor and cost... Trellis and Vertical Growing. See below…. To do this it requires great understanding of your microclimate, crop selection (especially cold-hardy crops like these ones) and careful garden planning.Because there’s always lots to do in a year-round garden I wanted to share this guide. Trellising does have some disadvantages, however. The growing area is divided into square foot sections. You can make a vertical frame of electrical conduit fastened with slip fittings, or 1/2 inch water pipe with threaded elbow couplings (detail). Soil improvement efforts are focused on the beds alone, not in the paths. If the trellis is part of your landscaping it should be aesthetically pleasing, too. P.S. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. All gardeners can grow vegetables more efficiently by using some of the intensive growing techniques described here. The practice of intensive gardening is not ... example, carrots and radish are commonly planted together in the same row. A good rule is to install the sturdiest trellis you can afford. Whether raised or not, the advantage of beds is that vegetable plants can be grown more closely together. Consider the eventual harvest size of the vegetables you inter-plant, and space them so that at maturity they will just be touching each other. They are about four to five feet high and I connect them with steel posts. Raised beds can be temporary or permanent. Do you appreciate the rugged appeal of recycled tires in your garden? Year-round gardening is my ultimate goal. Biointensive farming or gardening also aims to use less water and energy than traditional gardening methods, while sustaining and even building soil that’s healthy, vigorous and alive with many different kinds of microorganisms. Back at the first bed, loosen the second, deeper layer of soil. By the time the tomato plants are bearing, the lettuce or radishes will be harvested. The type of vegetable determines what kind of trellis used. If you only used intensive spacing and double digging but didn’t compost, you wouldn’t be able to replenish your soil nutrients at the rate they were being used. Container and Pot Sizes: How Much Soil Do I Need. And it takes forEVER to stop leaching out into your soil! A variety of material including wood or concrete blocks can be used for the sides. In each section, plants or seeds are carefully spaced. Insect protection is an extra benefit of using slings, especially if the entire fruit is wrapped. The goal here is to produce a lot of food in a very small area, by putting in some serious manual labor to produce perfect planting beds and intensive plantings. Your email address will not be published. Flowers will be more exposed to the wind, which may discourage pollinators like bees, and can cause flower abortion. The BEST thing in the world I have found are cattle panels. Once marked, you can use a hoe or rake to move soil from paths up into beds. Building and installing trellises can involve time and expense. Amend soil with compost or organic matter before planting, use a starter fertilizer or compost tea for early spring plantings, and top dress vegetables at the proper stage of their growth. Old railroad ties have been creosote-treated, and may contain enough residue to cause plant injury. DON’T make the same mistake I did! For example, in the Southwest, Native Americans gave us the concept of the “Three Sisters” planting of corn, beans and squash. Careful management is the key to successful intensive vegetable gardens. Also, not all types of vegetables grow well in bed culture. You can see below in my spring planting how lush and closely planted everything is. Instead of placing seedlings in rows, intensive gardening involves utilizing space-saving techniques in order to efficiently grow in a concentrated area. I swore I would never use than evil stuff again… I’d use plain string first… that stuff is awful! You can see below an example of a garden layout allowing for access to beds with paths between rows. It's so easy—all you need are a few materials and a vision for your future garden… An intensive garden minimizes wasted space. Or some of the lettuce can be removed in May to make room to sow seed of winter squash. You also can organize your garden into beds, but not actually raise them. An edible forest in Mexico City, Mexico with 45 tree varieties, a seed bank, and a large section of bio-intensive gardening, Huerto Tlatelolco was created with the objective of building the local community. By Victoria Bailey Bio-intensive gardening is a system of producing food that concentrates on harvesting the largest amount of crops using the least amount of resources. And to think I could have saved myself all that trouble by NOT using raised beds in the first place! At least if you like things neat and pretty like I do! See more on these intensive gardening methods: Companion planting example: plant flowers and vegetables in one compact area in order to save space and resources. You can notice these intensive pronouns being ‘bold’ in the following examples. The site for planting is cleared of all weeds and debris then 3 to 4 inches of organic matter is spread over the site and dug or tilled into the soil. Root crops like carrots and beets still can be sown in rows, but plant two or three rows the length of the growing bed. . It’s for CHICKENS… period. A higher percentage of the available growing space is used, there is less room for weeds to grow, and water can be used more efficiently. I cover various intensive and non-intensive gardening methods in-depth in my new book Grow or Die: The Good Guide to Survival Gardening. Raised beds can be free-standing or built with more permanent sides to help hold the soil in place. With examples, you would get a better understanding of the entire concept. Make the inter-planted area no wider than what you can easily reach across to keep from trampling plants. Intensive gardening done in containers on the patio may include a potted tomato to a variety of lettuces and spinach grown together in a container. Since these beds will be in place a number of years, building up and loosening it’s soil when first establishing the beds is important. This technique made its way to America around 1966, thanks to Alan Chadwick who demonstrated this technique on an inhospitable hillside at the University of California’s Santa Cruz campus. Posts or supports for trellises can be made from metal, wood or plastic like PVC pipe. We know how to solve every food, clean energy, and sensible shelter problem in every climate; we have already invented and tested every necessary technique and technical device, and have access to all the biological material that we could ever use. Beds are a more efficient way to organize the garden than rows, especially for small-sized vegetables. Besides saving space, vegetables grown this way are easier to pick and may have less rot because the fruit does not contact the soil. Decreasing garden size provides more yard space for other activities. Permanent raised beds have supported sides. Avoid materials which have been treated with creosote or penta (pentachlorophenol). The beds are also double dug, which means that the soil is worked to twice the usual depth. Carrots take about 15-20 days to sprout and 90 days to reach maturity; radishes come up quickly and are ready for harvest in only 30 days, so when planting carrots from seed in your garden you can plant radishes at the same time, just tuck them in between the rows of carrots. The gardener can concentrate soil improvement efforts in a smaller area, and, with careful management, small gardens can produce sufficient vegetables for fresh eating during the growing season, and perhaps extra produce for preserving. Growing vegetables in containers is another type of intensive gardening and is described in Container Gardening. If you are interested in preserving, a smaller garden may not provide enough produce for winter use. Once the sides are installed, fill beds with garden soil which has been amended with peat, shredded leaves, compost or other organic materials. This technique may be useful for container growing or where space is extremely limited, but will demand correspondingly more attention by the gardener. 1.2: Vertical Gardening The use of trellises, nets, strings, cages, or poles to support growing plants constitutes vertical gardening. An inter-planted garden does not resemble a traditional garden with all the vegetables planted in smart little rows. allows them to fix nitrogen in the soil and increase this macro-nutrients availability for Melons and squashes do not naturally twine and will have to be trained initially by weaving stem ends through mesh openings. But the weeds that do grow must still be controlled. Raised beds warm faster and dry earlier in the spring, allowing earlier spring planting. Remember that later planted succession crops mature faster than earlier planted ones because growing conditions, especially temperature and light intensity, usually are more favorable. Properly amended raised beds will have soil loose and friable enough to be turned easily with a shovel. We may also earn a commission from purchases made at other retailers linked from our site. Choose High-yield Crops. The wood should be pressure-treated for the longest life. FarmHomestead is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. You can even design wheelchair access growing beds to be three feet high and no more than two feet wide. For example, by planting lettuce or spinach every two weeks, you can harvest it all season with no gaps in production. You will place your plants in more space saving arrangements , and this way your biointensive gardening efforts will be fruitful. It’s simply a question of your preferences, your resources and your climate. A wide variety of trellising materials is available. Wooden posts should be treated with a preservative or they may last only one season. Here are the principles and methods of intensive vegetable gardening: Soil improvement: The soil is well-prepared before planting. By establishing permanent paths and beds (even if they’re NOT raised) you still will avoid compacting the soil in growing areas. As in any system, intensive gardening has a few problems. Lots of gardeners use vertical growing to save space in the garden. Woods treated with these materials are greenish in color. (I guess it really just depends on how long your arms are!). This garden plan is another exact layout. … Certain wood preservatives can damage growing plants. To grow all the vegetables you want, you may have to use transplants instead of direct seeding, which will increase your costs. In this style of gardening, the beds are very large, allowing gardeners to walk in the beds, rather than along established pathways, to perform garden maintenance. Planning an Intensive Garden The purpose of gardening intensively is to harvest as much produce as possible from a given space. Good gardening practices such as watering, fertilizing, crop rotation, composting, and sanitation are especially important in an intensive garden… An intensive garden requires detailed planning, but the time saved in working the garden and the increased yields make it well worthwhile. The Multi-Bed Garden Plan. Orient trellises to run in an east-west direction, and locate them on the north side of the garden to avoid shading other plants. The creosote they use to soak those things is really toxic. Posts can be used to support plastic or string mesh, or chicken wire. The pea plants will be finished bearing about the time the melon or squash needs the trellis. Begin in the first bed by digging out the top layer of soil to the depth of a shovel and move the soil into a pile near the farthest bed. (Did I just say chicken wire? These crops tend to produce a good yield in small areas (Like a backyard). I got a number of railroad ties for free. To prevent excessive drying and washing of soil, mulch (mulch, MULCH!!) Use small tools like onion hoes, or pull weeds by hand. A nonprofit farming cooperative in the South Bronx, New York, La Finca del Sur is led by Latina and black women. The tragic reality is that very few sustainable systems are designed or applied by those who hold power, and the reason for this is obvious and simple: to let people arrange their own food, energy, and shelter is to lose economic and political control over them. Types and Installation Raised beds are growing areas whose surface is “raised” above the surrounding area. Caging tomatoes and trellising peas are two familiar examples. Or, do you … For some gardeners a small garden is not practical. Dispose of scraps and sawdust in a landfill. Old mulch, compost or other organic material can be turned under each year which will further enrich the soil. Follow the usual fertilization guidelines for each crop in the inter-planting. Note: Soil preparation is the key to successful intensive gardening. Move to the second bed and remove the top layer of soil. Just wire them on and VIOLA! Growing plants vertically can mean higher yields per base area. Inter-planting can be defined as planting different crops in adjoining areas to take advantage of differences in growing habits, light requirements or nutrient needs. Write us and let us know what works for you and what doesn’t! Privacy Policy, « Tomato Sauce—Basic, Herbed, or Vegetables Added. I’ve even been known to plant lettuce under my corn so it has plenty of shade. Problems in intensive gardening. Similarly, vining squash or melons can be sown between trellised pea plants. No, you did NOT hear me say that! Attach strings to support the plants. Space plants by thinning or transplanting so they are evenly spaced in the beds. May 27, 2018 - Learn how to maximize what you can produce in your vegetable garden with these intensive methods. Six to 15 hours of physical labor are required to make each bed. Raised beds are growing areas whose surface is “raised” above the surrounding area. Without a doubt, the greatest drawback is the labor involved in double-digging the beds Initially. The benefits can include greater yields per square foot, and more attractive vegetable plantings. These can include bed planting, vertical growing, inter-planting, and succession planting. . Examples of Sentences Using Intensive Pronouns. For some people, a small-sized garden is preferable to a larger one. Removing dead plants from chicken wire fencing is frustrating and futile. As I mentioned, beans give nitrogen to the other plants, while the squash shades out weeds and the corn provides a stalk for the beans to grow on. In this type of garden, much of the area is taken by the space between the rows. If you try something that doesn’t work, well, how about that! For successful inter-planting combinations, plan your garden around the largest, longest-growing vegetable staples like tomatoes or winter squash. Raised beds are not the answer for all gardeners lacking space. Take the Self Reliant PathCome Homestead with Us! Most crops are adaptable to growing in beds, but small-sized vegetables like lettuce, greens, dwarf or bush varieties and cabbage perform the best. Grow crops that are richer in calories. Some growing seasons can complicate trying to stagger plantings. Run them as a straight fence (upper left), in zigzag pattern (upper right), with space between the frames (lower left), or as an arbor (lower right). Plants like lettuce and radishes can be sown by lightly sprinkling seed over the bed and gradually thinning young plants to their recommended final spacing. "The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patient in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease" ~ Thomas Jefferson. Rather, inter-planted gardens have a mosaic effect with paths oriented around the inter-planted areas. This is by far my favorite part of gardening… trying new things!! The difference is how they are grown. A method of inter-planting which has received notice recently is known as “square foot gardening.” This technique (based on a book of the same name by Mel Bartholomew) involves planting vegetables very intensively. For example, GB is like a stool that only works if it has all its legs. Once you’ve decided their location, plant smaller, fast-growing vegetables around them. Notice the two different raised bed techniques…. One of the defining features of French intensive gardening is the raised beds that are used. To manage smaller gardens successfully, gardeners must use different growing methods. They are cheap and they aren’t hard to move around either! Biointensive sustainable garden plants include any plants you can plant in your garden. Carrots grow especially well this way. For example, if the seed packet says to thin lettuce so plants stand six inches apart in rows two feet apart, ignore the row spacing, and thin all lettuce plants to stand six inches apart. Always handle it with gloves, and wear a mask while sawing it to avoid absorbing any of the preservative residues. “Intensive” gardeners must pay close attention to scheduling plantings to ensure that no part of a smaller garden is left unoccupied. The tendency of the soil in raised beds to dry faster may increase the need for irrigation later in the season. Make beds any convenient length, but not wider than four or five feet across for easy reaching from either side. You don't need a lot of space for plants to thrive. Tire gardening. Some examples of these crops include wheat, Barkley, rye, and wheat. Once established, the garden traffic is confined to paths, which reduces soil compaction. Most gardeners practice a simple succession planting in row gardens by following a lettuce planting in spring with a late crop of, say, beans, or by staggering plantings of beans or sweet corn to ensure a steady harvest. Finish by smoothing the top of the bed with a rake. 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